Employment Characteristics of Regular Salaried Employees in Urban Maharashtra

Abstract

Studies on the labour market in India are increasingly debating the issue of caste-based discrimination in employment. However, there are few studies addressing the issue of regular salaried employees in urban labour market, except in the context of reservation policy. Due to the reservation policy, the issue of the representation of the schedule caste, scheduled tribes and other backward class has been addressed to a particular extent. In this context, this article attempts to analyse the status of schedule caste in employment and unemployment, participation in different occupations and industries groups, job security and social security benefits in urban labour market Maharashtra. The descriptive analysis clearly shows that a significant employment difference exists between regular salaried employees belonging to Hindu High Caste (HHC) and Schedule Caste (SC). One of the reasons that comes out for the substantial gap is the higher level of unemployment rate among educated SCs as compared to HHCs. The SCs have less representation in the high earning occupations, but contrary to this, they have high representation in the low wage-earning occupations. The share of informal SCs is high as compared to HHCs in the private sector in the state and NSS regions during 2004–2005 to 2018–2019.